Improving in-game atmosphere

evi1r0n said:
I find the problem with changing clothes a lot, is that people will often ask me if I am playing a different character when I do. It's funny that we see our characters as kind of cartoon characters that never change clothes or at least have 50 copies of the same outfit.
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I've never had this problem, and my barrister has 6 different outfits (of which I often use 3 or so on any given weekend)
 
Lurin said:
evi1r0n said:
I find the problem with changing clothes a lot, is that people will often ask me if I am playing a different character when I do. It's funny that we see our characters as kind of cartoon characters that never change clothes or at least have 50 copies of the same outfit.
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I've never had this problem, and my barrister has 6 different outfits (of which I often use 3 or so on any given weekend)
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Same here.

I have it a bit easier than most. I'm a team leader and all of my garb is team colors. But, I would expect that if you change clothes often enough people will stop asking.

Stephen
 
I have characters that change clothes often and some that never change clothes. It depends on their profession, station in life, and if they are in or near their homes or out in a far off land.

Up until pretty recent times, only the rich had a lot of clothes (we're very spoiled compared to our ancestors). Many people in medieval times would wear the same clothes every day and might even only own one set of clothes.

I guess they got used to the smell.

Scott
 
I just saw some pictures from the Calgary chapter where a blacksmith refitting someone's armor was using a boffer hammer to properly physrep it. It looked really awesome, when compared to just patting someone on the back and "fixing" their armor. What if this were extended to first aid as well? Carry a few strips of fabric to tie off that bleeding wound while you wait for a healer. Gives you something to do for those 60 seconds as well.
 
we actually have players that carry bandages for applying first aid. It's a requirement. :thumbsup:
 
Not to be a pain but can you actually 'require' something like bandages for First Aid when it's fairly clearly spelled out in the RB?

I only ask because a traveling player might be in for an unpleasant surprise if they were informed they 'had' to have bandages to use the skill they were totally familiar with...

That aside I think it's an awesome idea to 'require' Bandages for First Aid! :thumbsup: In fact I may try to start having some for my characters that have that skill...
 
I am also in favor of bandages for first aid and boffer hammers for Blacksmith. The reason I don't use bandages for First Aid is actually a separate OOG issue - comfort. I can't think of a period-appropriate type of bandage that isn't tied on, and tying on bandages to people is potentially a little more intimate a contact than just tapping with a hand or a boffer hammer; rather than be constantly asking people if they accept physical RP, if I can tie something to their costume, etc. every time I go to First Aid them, I go the less-disruptive route of just putting a hand on an arm or shoulder, possibly miming treating wounds if I know them well enough or have permission to be a little more physical. It's the West Coast hippy in me. ;)
 
A local LARP that runs about once a year, called Zombie, uses bandages for healing. By the end of the event people look like mummies on their arms and legs but it still works and it is an action heavy LARP (more than Alliance).
 
Yep, played in a game called Mystic Realms that does much the same sort of thing.

People KNOW you're beat up when you come back from a mod trailing enough bloody cloth to make a mummy out of.
 
Dreamingfurther said:
Not to be a pain but can you actually 'require' something like bandages for First Aid when it's fairly clearly spelled out in the RB?
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Also not to be a pain but from the ARB page 61:

"The player with this skill should role-play
the First Aid by pulling out some bandages and
otherwise concentrating on helping the patient."

This sentence can be loosely interpreted in many ways ('should' does not mean 'must', what constitutes 'concentrating', etc.) but it is mentioned in the rule book that bandages should be used with the First Aid skill.
 
zehnyu said:
Big things, small things..what little props/moments/things help keep you in the spirit of the game? What little bits make you go "Wow. Its a small thing, but that's really cool, and makes me not see those crappy orange camp chairs that are sitting on the wall." etc. etc.
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For our chapter, its definitely the quality of the people playing the NPCs. One of my favourite NPC moments was when Andreas (our plot co-ordinator) came into town with two NPC girls and he had a book of songs, and he got our PC Elf Bard girl to read one poem (after the orange-feathered female biata refused) and then sung 2 more himself - a rousing Middenvale ('celtic'-like culture) drinking song and then a song from the country we were in which was a wistful/nostalgia thing.

What I liked the most was during the Middenvale song, the two gypsy girls started dancing, and I felt that it needed more crowd participation so I started clapping and then a lot of the other people starting clappng/tapping mugs on tables etc, which was cool - I felt like I 'started' something.

There were other ways in which the NPCs really added atmosphere to last week's event (which was my first time out). Some of the acting was phenomenal such that it was hard to tell the 'player' who was portraying the NPC for how different from their 'normal' them they were!

It's not just the NPCs either, there's some quality RP/Improv amongst the PCs too, but I suspect you are talking more campaign-staff stuff.

As a new chapter, we don't have much in the way of 'props' or 'signs' that lend atmosphere other than the one banner that one of the former Alberta chapter salvaged when that chapter disbanded. We do have a set of posts that are tied to the fence by the parking lot that obscures the view of the cars. The wind likes to knock them down, though, but it lends to more immersion (espcially if you are sitting around the firepit, which is right next to the parking lot - without that fence it'd be hard not to let that influence you).
 
Dan Nickname Beshers said:
Emphatically not just staff. We do far, far worthier things as a gaming community than an enterprise.
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There's a thread "3 apples and a mushroom review" in the calgary ooc board where I gave a long post about what I liked, if you'd like to read it. It was my first event out (and I'm quite verbose, so I wrote a lot). I could repeat a lot of it here, but I think it's sufficient to refer you there :)

viewtopic.php?f=194&t=14162

Like I said, as a new chapter, we don't have much 'bling' in the way of signage and what have you, but the experience was great. I didn't even miss not having a computer for 3 days like I thought I was going to :eek:
 
Chasmania said:
I just saw some pictures from the Calgary chapter where a blacksmith refitting someone's armor was using a boffer hammer to properly physrep it. It looked really awesome, when compared to just patting someone on the back and "fixing" their armor. What if this were extended to first aid as well? Carry a few strips of fabric to tie off that bleeding wound while you wait for a healer. Gives you something to do for those 60 seconds as well.
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I wasn't told I had to bring physreps for First Aid, but I had a whole 'kit' prepared when I came. I wound up only using the tensor bandages I brought rather than digging up the whole kit each time. However when I came into Logistics, he asked to see my First Aid physreps (which I didn't know I needed, but glad I brought!) That reminds me - I need to make a boffer hammer now that I have Blacksmithing too... (well, I will once my BPs get calculated)

I can't think of a period-appropriate type of bandage that isn't tied on, and tying on bandages to people is potentially a little more intimate a contact than just tapping with a hand or a boffer hammer; r
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I have a roll of tensor bandages that I unravel and manipulate 'as if' I were applying them - I don't actually wrap them on a person. It's mostly so that anyone looking at me sees the bandage in my hands and can quickly figure out what I'm doing with it. I was the only person I saw who was actually bandaging people - most of the others just healed them outright - we have quite a few people with a little healing magic - so I have no idea what other people did for bandaging. (I do remember seeing some people applying first aid during combat, and I usually suggest they get back to fighting and let me apply first aid since I didn't have a weapon skill and it was pretty much the only thing I could contribute in combat.) I also don't (yet) have healing arts, so I don't yet know if someone is unconscious or dying, so I probably applied bandages on people who didn't need it.

While technically the person being first-aided needs to by lying down or kneeling, there was one situation where I had pulled someone out of a combat situation to apply bandages where he remained standing (a-because of the armour he was wearing and b-because he knew I was going to pull him a little further afterwards) so having the bandages so that anyone who happened by could see what was happening would be able to see that he probably 'should' have been prone. (We were in a mostly open field after I pulled him out of the forest - the combat players were still fighting and the player's wife (who was a page due to her meds causing extra bruising even for boffers) was on the other side of the baseball diamond behind the fence that would have been behind the hitter/umpire, so it wasn't like anyone was really 'nearby' when that happened, but still.)


Signs for a group's abode (if it is well known, obviously) such as Earth Guild, Celestial Guild, etc.
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Read through the thread and saw this - our Earth Guild actually looks pretty good. It's right in the centre of camp just off the common grounds and just off the centre-most path going back to the cabins. It's got an overhead 'tent' like thing and the circle itself is represented by a tube of lights (which looks really neat in the dark!) it has a bench to sit on as well there's a potion workshop physrep inside, which belongs to the 'guild' (that one guild member can use per day - since skills in craft potion is part of their in-game advancement/ranking requirements, which means most Earth Guild characters have some ability to make potions.)

I have NO idea where the Mage's guild is in our camp (and my character would probably steer clear of it anyways, being Biata), but the Healer's Guild looks pretty cool. I don't see a good picture of it, except one of people sitting there waiting to be ressed, which doesn't really show much of the circle unfortunately.
 
The Celestial Circle is behind the tavern near the gypsy's tent and blacksmithing tent. We've purchased these tear down gazebos :shock: for use at the various locations. Looks ppretty good.
 
Duke Frost said:
I have characters that change clothes often and some that never change clothes. It depends on their profession, station in life, and if they are in or near their homes or out in a far off land.

Up until pretty recent times, only the rich had a lot of clothes (we're very spoiled compared to our ancestors). Many people in medieval times would wear the same clothes every day and might even only own one set of clothes.

I guess they got used to the smell.

Scott
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I'm with you Scott, I change up clothes for my well-to-do characters and the ones that actually care (including NPC's who might be rulers or something), but because of NPCing I'm always afraid that people will have trouble recognizing me as NOT my character when I play someone of the same race.... But I will admit to being a costuming fiend, so I sort of have at least 8 or 9 base pieces that I can shake up for characters....
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Another thing I really like for atmosphere is background... give your NPCs a bit of background to go on! I hate talking to an NPC who can't answer "Where are you from?". Obviously, this diminishes with experience, but maybe there should be a character history hat where you can grab one for new players who don't know the game yet.
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Cabin decorating is a big one for me (though I admit I was lazy last event), I like to hang tapestries and make the beds according to the character - I actually have sleeping supplies for all of my characters so it looks more IG on top of my double thick air mattress ;)
 
I don't have the people think I changed characters because I changed clothes problem anymore. It happened for a while then my character gained some clout and I added the sun symbol (the Legion of the Sun sigil) to all my shirts. No more issues. Although for NPCs it's really hard, especially if they aren't a rare race for the area. If I play my hobling NPC and change clothes people will assume I am a different hobling. Now the one NPC dark elf, he's fine.
 
evi1r0n said:
I don't have the people think I changed characters because I changed clothes problem anymore. It happened for a while then my character gained some clout and I added the sun symbol (the Legion of the Sun sigil) to all my shirts. No more issues. Although for NPCs it's really hard, especially if they aren't a rare race for the area. If I play my hobling NPC and change clothes people will assume I am a different hobling. Now the one NPC dark elf, he's fine.
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I've found that with these, sometimes its best to try and just put a little extra in personality, if you want more than one set of clothes.

If you have to go out of NPC camp as 4 different humans, and want to keep one defined, try to grab different classes for the other 3. Always come out with the same weapon. Try to figure out a way to walk. (maybe a limp? maybe they're light hearted so they skip everywhere.) For a hobling, maybe just a specific set of 'chops, to make him easily recognizable (especially if you plan on going out as this guy multiple times.) There's a pc back east who plays a hobling who has curls in her chops (they're awesome) for an example.

These little things have a tendency of going a long way, especially when interacting with PCs. Little idiosyncrasies are easy to pick up, in order to define who you're playing. :) And when all else fails, that black scar down a cheek or over an eye does wonders.
-Ali
 
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